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In a world much like our own, but with more danger and more mystery, a young boy named Gon Freecss, raised since infancy by his aunt, discovers from a traveling stranger his father's true identity: Gin Freecss, a world-famous Hunter.

In this world, you see, there are elite mercenaries known as Hunters. And Hunters truly are elite: among other benefits, they get access to world-class amenities and exotic locales that are off-limits to ordinary people. Of course, the life of a Hunter is also dangerous, for Hunters make their living taking on some of the most dangerous missions on Earth. Some scour the world for treasures or exotic goods, while others are Bounty Hunters who track down the world's most dangerous criminals. Gon isn't so much interested in riches or fame, however: he wants to be a Hunter so he can track down his father.

Just becoming a Hunter is an adventure in itself. During the incredibly difficult and incredibly dangerous "Hunter Exam", Gon faces peril both natural and man-made. He also acquires a circle of friends, such as Leorio, a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who wants to become fabulously wealthy: so he can become a doctor and open a free clinic; Kurapika, last of the Kuruta tribe: which was hunted into near-extinction by those who sought the Kuruta's "crimson eyes", which turn a fetching shade of red when emotionally excited; and Killua Zaoldyeck, a White-Haired Pretty Boy who happens to be the middle son of a Dysfunctional Family of notorious assassins.

The series is very noticeable for having many long hiatus breaks during its run, one of which continued for a grand total of 1 year and 20 days! Hunter x Hunter returned in 2010 Weekly Shonen Jump Double Issue #5-6, and ran for 20 chapters. It then went back into a year long hiatus since 2010 Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #26, but has finally returned again in 2011 Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #35-36, for 30 chapters then it went on a break again on Issue #16, 2012. It seems to have settled into a system where we get one tankobon (single volume collecting 10 chapters) every 6 months, instead of every 2 months; this puts Hunter X Hunter on par with mangas that get a new chapter each month, instead of each week.

Weekly Shonen Jump's double issue #35-36 in 2011 ultimaly confirmed that the series would get a complete anime remake, disregarding the previous animated series and OVAs to start from the very begining of the story; it is being produced by MADHOUSE and directed by Koujina Hiroshi, the character designs are being handled by Yoshimatsu Takahiro.

Art Shift: This is more in lieu to the author's hiatus, but one can see he was really rushing at the end of the Greed Island arc. The artwork look on par with that of a sketchbook and yet SJ still published it.

Asskicking Equals Authority: The Chimera Ant hierarchy. The Hunter Association is kind of like this too, though there's actual politics behind it. Presumably badassness is just a major consideration in voting.

Author Avatar: He even makes a cameo appearance as a plushie in the background of the manga.

Battle Tops: Gido tosses tops infused with Nen. When hit, the main character remarks that they hit like a sledgehammer. If the opponent gets too close, Gido can then spin like a top.

Be Careful What You Wish For: This is the basis of Alluka Zoldyck's Nen. If you grant three of her requests, she'll grant you one wish. But the wish often has unintended consequences, and the bigger it is, the more severe her requests become (to the point of asking someone to give her their organs). Whoever denies four consecutive requests dies on the spot, along with the person they care about most, and a number of other people depending on the last wish's severity. However, this is all completely averted for selfless or compassionate wishes, which just make Alluka sleepy and bypass the entire request system.

Apparently the rules don't really apply to Killua but he might be the only exception. He doesn't need to fulfill Alluka's three requests before being granted a wish. All he has to do, is ask nicely.

It's been revealed that Killua can even order Nanaka to do things instead of asking as well. Such as sending Illumi home.

Bequeathed Power: Pakunoda gets afflicted with a curse that causes her to die if she uses her powers. She makes her way back to the organization she works for and uses her powers one last time, to insert what she knows about her attacker into their memories so they all have detailed information about this assailant.

Beware the Superman: The Genei Ryodan. The Chimera Ants. And it certainly isn't unheard of among regular hunters.

Biological Mashup: An entire race of biological mash-ups, the Chimera Ants, is the foe during the Chimera Ant arc.

Blood Knight: Hisoka again. The only reasons he's helped out the main characters is because he wants to fight them once their powers are fully developed. Ditto his involvement with the Genei Ryodan, except he wants to fight Chrollo.

Killua: Do you have to yell those words every time?Gon: Huh? Sure. Otherwise it's not like a special attack.Killua: Maybe...but you're telegraphing the enemy. What if you get attacked while you're yelling?Gon: I'll dodge and say it.Killua: What if you can't?!Gon: I'll still say it.

This is partially explained by the nature of Nen, in where a user's familiarity with the activation of their ability will make that ability more powerful.

And used to clever effect by Gon to psych out an opponent who knows about Gon's penchant for calling his attacks.

Cellphones are used more often in this series than in any other shonen you could name. Even Chimera Ants tend to rely on them.

The whole Chimera Ant plot only progressed as far as it did because the Queen was fortunate enough to land in the one country in the world were cellphones were banned, preventing biohazard mobilization in time to easily nip them in the bud.

Charles Atlas Superpower: The four main characters are all able to lift several tons, before learning Nen, due to extreme weight training.

Children Forced to Kill: Killua is an example. Being a member of a Big Screwed-Up Family of assassins, he's taught to kill from infancy, and forced into the life of an assassin without being given much of any choice in the matter. He was murdering people before he turned 6, and by the time he appears in the show at age 12, he's already killed hundreds of people.

Convection, Schmonvection: Averted with Feitan's power rising sun, which creates a miniature star which does exactly what you expect it to do: it produces tremendous heat and thus quickly and violently burn down everything in a perimeter of several dozens of meters.

Crapsack World: Thought 9/11 was bad? Here terrorists kill 11 million people in one event. The mob runs the world. Parts of the world are inhabited by demons.

The 11 million people thing? It's not even an actual part of the plot. It was just a throwaway remark.

Crap Saccharine World: A charming world full of funny creatures - and unfunny creatures, and bad, bad people.

Creator Breakdown: Long rumored to affect the author, particularly the arcs that appeared to be sketchbook work. At least a couple breaks have been confirmed due to a literal physical breakdown causing health issues such as chest pain.

Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Kurapika puts conditions on his nen to increase its power, but it will kill him if he doesn't follow the strict code. Gon forcefully ages his body to increase his power, causing such trauma that his life will be shortened, and he may even lose his Nen powers.

The whole manga really. Each arc is filled with it's fair share of gore

Deconstructor Fleet: It's not that Hunter X Hunter doesn't stand on its own as a shonen fighting manga, but especially once you get into the ant arc it becomes hard to ignore that Togashi wants to deconstruct shonen manga, its villains, and the Idiot Hero.

And then of course he recently sacrificed his life to turn into a huge muscle-guy with endless hair in order to destroy Nefelpitou for destroying the mentor Gon wasn't strong enough or old enough to save...it was horrifying as hell, but a little bit funny, too. Because look, it's grown-up Goku Up to Eleven.

Five-Man Band dynamics also played straight and deconstructed. Interesting because Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio map onto the team from Togashi's first big series.

Of course, Yusuke and Hiei weren't best friends, but the group had about as little cohesion—which is to say, everyone pretty much pursued their own goals, and fell back together by circumstance. Except they stopped doing that in Hunter X Hunter. Hisoka came back. The rest of the Ryodan appeared to have a Villain Episode wiping out a local outbreak of the new Big Bad. Leorio is not likely to do so. Nor Kurapika.

Kuroro Lucifer is weird. Hisoka does not belong in children's comics. And Meruem is an attempt to be psychologically realistic about a cosmic-level entity born full-grown to devour humans and conquer the world.

E.g. Shizuku's and Coltopi's powers don't work on living beings; Gensuru's main ability won't activate until he explains it; Kurapika will die if he uses Chain Jail on someone outside of Gen'ei Ryodan (in order to avertHe Who Fights Monsters).

This also explains why Gon calls out his attacks (see Calling Your Attacks above). He has subconsciously put a condition on his nen attack, meaning he has to say the attack out loud, otherwise it wouldn't be as destructive, or even activate.

Fluffy the Terrible: A giant guard dog with a cutesy name guards the Zoldyck household. Even Gon is afraid of it.

Forbidden Zone: The "Outside"/Dark Continent, original home of the supersized chimera ants, quite possibly all magical beasts, and special types of humans. The land has been called "Humanity's most immense taboo" and all attempts to go there throughout history resulted in disasters. 200 years ago, the five greatest nations in the world agreed to outlaw any further exploration attempts.

Gender Misdirection: Years after being told the Zoldyek's had only sons, Alluka, the missing brother, turns out to be a girl.

Played with. Killua refers to Alluka as a girl, but Illumi and Milluki refer to Alluka as a boy. Alluka is androgynous enough that s/he could be either.

Gorn: has LOTS of it, though much of it is (self-)censored because the manga runs in Jump. The writers of the new anime which is aimed at a younger audience have already gone on record saying they will be in deap trouble once the series catches up with the later manga arcs.

Half-Human Hybrid: The Chimera Queen absorbs the DNA of anything she eats and gives birth to hybrid children, and the Chimera King can mate with the female of any species and turn her into a Chimera Queen.

And it's not just them either. Practically the entire cast are Improbable Weapon Users. From dart boards to bank interest to mobile phones and even a giant pipe, the characters pretty much have it covered.

Cheerfully subverted with Leorio,who, when threatened, promptly pulls out... A switchblade. A weapon so mundane that, in a Shounen series, it's approaching weird from the other side.

And let us not forget Hisoka and use of playing cards as lethal weapons

Interspecies Romance: Meryem and Komugi, it was being subtly developed along the Chimera Ants Arc, mostly one-sided by Meryem's infatuation with Komugi, although in the arc's climax/closure it was developed into a mutual relationship.

Intimidation Demonstration: Early on, one of Kurapika's opponents punches a concrete wall, leaving huge cracks and chips in it, then reveals a tattoo resembling that of the deadly Spiders organization as well as his kill count on his back. It turns out that he embedded a steel plate into one of his hands to enable him to punch with more force but can only do it once in a while as it really hurts, that the Spiders have a membership number on their tattoos, and that their kills are so numerous that they don't bother to count.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Leorio initially claims he's only in it for the money, but he later reveals that he needs the money to pay for medical school because his dream is to open a free clinic, having lost his best friend Pietro to a disease.

Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: The original anime...Good lord, the original anime...It was to the point where they would occasionally stretch out one chapter of the manga over two episodes.

The only major exception is the way Chimera Ants are created, such as Kaito might be now if taken at face value, retain memories and personalities of the devoured humans used to create them. Initially these personalities are suppressed, but those who recover their memories fully can be said to be a form of this.

Living on Borrowed Time: As of chapter 311, Meryem due to the Rose bomb's poison. Palm Siberia claims Meryem will be dead in a few hours. Shiapouf, who was infected by the poison when he fed Meryem his body, is dying even faster.

Malignant Plot Tumor: The Chimera Ants arc started as a side story completly unrelated to the main plot. It ended up being longer than the Yorknew and Greed Island arcs combined.

Meaningful Name: Meruem, according the the Chimera Ant Queen, means "The light that shines on everything." Meruem demonstrates the truth of this when he reaches a level of power where he is able to use his Nen on individual photons, and in the chapter titled "A Flash".

Meet Cute: subverted and lampshaded during the Greed Island arc with "Love-Love, The City of Romance" which is "famous for its easy meetings": various Moe Moe-looking characters crash into the main characters, lose their glasses, and generally need rescuing, but the main characters (mostly) ignore them because they've got a mission to complete.

Morality Pet: The Chimera Ant King only avoids slipping past the Moral Event Horizon because he takes care of a heavily handicapped girl when she's injured.

Possibly you could state that on the blimp, Gon played this part for Killua. He was about to kill the girl when he heard Gon still fighting for her outside, and it brought him back to his old self. Since then he's actually seemed to avoid killing people if there was an alternative.

More Dakka: One of the Genei Ryodan removed his own fingers to replace them with Nen machine guns.

Mundane Utility: One round of the Hunter Exam was a cook-off. Also used in the York Shin arc, where Gon and Killua use their aura-sensing powers to locate cheap antiques that they can later resell for a profit.

Murder the Hypotenuse: Pufu is afraid Komugi might distract the King from his "true goal" and is therefore considering killing her for "the King's sake".

My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Often subverted, as ostensibly powerful and experienced characters are often defeated by weaker characters who simply have a better preparation and make a wiser or more optimal use of their skills; see Kurapika vs Uvogin, Gon vs Genthru, many fights against the Chimera Ants, and so on.

Doubly subverted when Uvogin fights the Shadow Beasts. Just after we have established just how badass he is, the three Shadow Beasts, through carefully combined attacks and proper use of their abilities, quickly render Uvogin seemingly harmless... and then he manages to defeat all three of them in 10 seconds using only his neck and head after warning them that that was actually all he needed to kill them, although to be fair he still would have died if his allies hadn't treated him.

Nakama: the four main characters, and also the Genei Ryodan, who are a rare villainous example.

Only Sane Man: Parodied with the 3 guards of the king; both Shaiapouf and Menthuthuyoupi see themselves as the only sane of the 3 guards… but in the heat of battle, they both lose a lot of time due to their respective temper problems, whereas only Neferpitou is able to keep his cool and display razor-sharp intuition and light-speed decision making even as all odds are against him.

Redemption Equals Death: As soon as we start to see Pakunoda's good side, she dies. She's still a villain, it's just that we start to understand why she does the things she does... And then wham. Dead.

The Remake: In just another one of the series come back from its hiatus, Jump's double issue #35-36 (2011) confirmed the rumors that Hunter X Hunter would get a new anime adaptation, the surprise was that it won't be a continuation from where the previous OVAs left off, it will be a complete remake, starting from the very begining of the manga.

Series Hiatus: Three of 'em, leading the more cynical readers to refer to the series as Hiatus x Hiatus.

She Cleans Up Nicely: Palm Siberia, whose usual appearance is rather ragged: Messy hair, barefoot, a dirty dress etc. When she goes out on a date with Gon, she actually looks quite cute When the date starts to turn sour though she begin to revert to her old look.

Hisoka is completely naked in the last scene, at least in the manga (his intimates covered up by a speech balloon of all things). Gon and Killua don't seem too disturbed, but Biscuit, an older women who has the ability to turn into a little girl, has to run away and giggle furiously while red in the face.

How about having to choose between surnaming Killua as Zoldick or Zaoldyeck? Or Jin/Gin/Jing/Ging Freaks/Freeccs? And then we move into the Chimera generals, with names like Neferpitou, Shiapouf, and Menthuthuyupi. And since the "official" romanizations are pure gibberish in many cases, no two fan translations are ever consistent. Even on this very PAGE there are vastly different spellings for the same character's name.

An in-universe example. Ging Freeccs forced his friend Wdwune (the guy who gave out the last card in Greed Island) to change his name to Dwun despite his friend's fervent protest.

Ging's name is at the very least confirmed to start with a 'G', because it's explicitly stated that the 'G' in Greed Island comes from his name.

Stealth Mentor: Hisoka shows hints of this at times, but who knows what his motives are: it could be he's simply batshit insane.

At least a part of his motives is that he simply wants to fight strong opponents. At present he's doing his best to help Chrollo get his nen powers back so he can fight him, and he also wants Gon to grow into a fighter powerful enough to give him a helluva fight.

Also helps Killua out by tricking Illumi into revealing his killing intent so that Killua knows to avoid the area Illumi is in, because Killua is on a mission to save Gon. Though also subverted later on as Hisoka wonders if he should just kill Alluka to make Killua hate him and then kill Killua to make Illumi hate him so he has at least one strong opponent out of the three (Gon, Killua and Illumi) left, and gets to fight the second.

Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded: Knuckle thinks several paragraphs worth of text, realizes that he's thinking incredibly quickly and that the only way that could happen is because time slows down in the few seconds before he dies, then turns to see an obviously-fatal attack coming right toward him.

Torture Technician: Feitan. His torture acts are actually never shown, but it is hinted in various ways that he is a particularily sadistic pervert. The fact that he partially subverts the trope by being not a weakling at all, but actually one of the strongest and toughest fighters of his group, does not render him any more sympathetic.

Nobunaga: You're aiming to break his arm, right?Feitan: I was thinking of starting with the fingers. Carefully removing his nails...

The Hunter Exam arc ends in a tournament, though it differs from your standard shonen tournament in that every match is a submission match (you must get your opponent to forfeit the match,) killing results in an instant disqualification and instead of competing to be the winner, everyone's competing to not be the one loser. This leads to an interesting match where Gon wins the fight by getting the crap beaten out of him so hard that his opponent forfeits for fear of killing him because he refuses to submit.

What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Subverted so hard by Hisoka. He has the power to make his aura sticky like gum, and the power to change the appearance and texture of thin surfaces. Those are his only nen abilities. And as lame as they sound, the way he uses them makes them overkill, if anything.

Wild Child: Gon has all of the advantages: Charles Atlas Superpower senses, super strength but none of the disadvantages: The whole fish-out-of-water thing. Wing notes that though he was raised in a town, he was very outdoorsy.